By Stacey Henry-Carr | September 17, 2020
Fitness is more than your work out it starts with your mind and your daily habits. Have you ever proclaimed that you were going to start a workout routine and lose a certain number of pounds Of course, you have. We have all done it at one point or another. The question that you might not have asked yourself was do I want to do this?
Many of us start our wellness and fitness routines for the wrong reasons which leads us to give up or the process fails. Let us identify some of the wrong reasons:
To impress others.
To get the attention of a man.
To compare with the magazines and social media.
To fit in that societal box.
Your fitness and wellness must be for you and only you. You must know your reasons and why you genuinely want to be healthy and fit. If you force your body to do what it does not want to do it resist it! Your body does not work out without your mind. We must remember that your thoughts dictate our actions and your actions dictate your reality. Unless your mind is completely bought into the process your body will not follow.
Here is how you shift your mind to improve your body:
Fall in love with exercise by finding what works for you and feels like fun.
Start with the exercise you like and then gradually introduce other types of exercise.
Fall in love with your body and list all the things you like about it, not what you do not like.
Do not say I have to work out, say I love to work out!
Change the verbiage from I want to lose weight, to I want to release it! (the mind does not like to lose anything)
Affirm that I am choosing to work out! I am choosing to eat healthily!
Instead of tricking your mind into loving to work out and eat healthily, you can train it by getting into a routine and sticking to it for 10-21 days. This will help you to form the habit. Just as we form unhealthy habits, we can replace them with the flourishing ones.
Do not use the workout to punish your body just to be leaner, lighter, and fitter. If you do not love it, then it will yield results. Do not punish your body, work with it! Don’t deny yourself because you cannot force yourself into being healthy and fit.
Research shows that most diets fail because you restrict yourself and miss the things you stop eating. You must start by knowing the reason YOU want to exercise, release weight, or be healthy. By forcing yourself to exercise, your body believes it is punishment. When you were a child, you did not like to be punished. This causes your mind to start to view your fitness routine negatively.
A great way to train your mind is by using, meditation, affirmations, and visualization. Train your mind to see yourself doing the workout ahead of time and affirm why it’s good for you.
I encourage you to use a self-love model even when you exercise. If you see it as an act of self-love it will become a natural routine that leads you to be empowered, feeling beautiful, healthy, and happy.
Your mind is the most powerful tool you have and everything you do must start there.
Written by Stacey Henry-Carr Certified Life Coach and Hypnotherapist
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